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Vintage threads from the first ten years

Re: brass plate behind headstock

4/28/1999 11:03 PM
Hi	Re: brass plate behind headstock Strats can be really hard to get right, sometimes it seems there's about 3,000 adjustments on the thing. Most people play them with the action really low, but they sound a lot better with high action. Sometimes, with higher action, you can actually use smaller gauge strings and still get better tone. Adjusting the pickups all different and angling them and all that is crucial, that is really the most important basic tone control. It's been my experience that by taking your time (which for a bozo like me might be 8 or 10 months per new guitar) doing this you can usually end up getting pretty much anything you want out of a strat, even with a lot of stock pickups. As for hardtails, the springs inside strats give them a sort of reverby quality, which to me adds more depth than the somewhat better sustain of a hardtail. But to each his/her own. All I'm saying is that as far as getting more sustain or different tones (or even being dissatisfied with your pickups), strats have a lot of options for changing these things built into them, and sometimes adjusting it more to your personal tastes slowly will solve the perceived problem. Hi

4/28/1999 11:03 PM

Re: brass plate behind headstock

Strats can be really hard to get right, sometimes it seems there's about 3,000 adjustments on the thing. Most people play them with the action really low, but they sound a lot better with high action. Sometimes, with higher action, you can actually use smaller gauge strings and still get better tone. Adjusting the pickups all different and angling them and all that is crucial, that is really the most important basic tone control. It's been my experience that by taking your time (which for a bozo like me might be 8 or 10 months per new guitar) doing this you can usually end up getting pretty much anything you want out of a strat, even with a lot of stock pickups. As for hardtails, the springs inside strats give them a sort of reverby quality, which to me adds more depth than the somewhat better sustain of a hardtail. But to each his/her own. All I'm saying is that as far as getting more sustain or different tones (or even being dissatisfied with your pickups), strats have a lot of options for changing these things built into them, and sometimes adjusting it more to your personal tastes slowly will solve the perceived problem.
Hi

4/28/1999 11:50 PM
Mark Hammer	Leave your guitar unplugged and strum it unamplified while you push the headstock against a doorframe or solid desk. You will generally hear a difference. At a certain point, there will be a louder acoustic sound and a greater fullness to the sound. That is the outcome of having an effective headstock mass that is many times greater than what is feasible with a traditional wood headstock. And that was probably the inspiration for the Fathead and any similar devices. No big secret. Hell, when I was 15 I was doing it to fake having an amp. It's worth pointing out that you could also do the same thing by pressing the body of the guitar against a solid surface too, and in some respects the Dan Armstrong Lucite guitar was intended to do that too. Now, having said that, the Fathead is a kind of one size fits all solution for something that really ought to be a custom-tailored device (which is maybe why you still don't see them around much). In the same way that leaning your axe against just anything won't necessarily do the trick, neither will sticking any old hunk of brass on your guitar. I'm not saying it has to be precision-milled to tight tolerances. I'm just saying that whatever you stick on has to take into account the weight and liveliness of the neck relative to the body, quality of energy transfer in the neck/body joint, and bridge parameters. It may take more mass or less, or that same mass may need to be moved over a little. An all rosewood neck with a tight joint probably won't show any effect of added mass. I suspect a light n' lively neck on a very resonant body will show some limited benefit up to a point and then declining effect (but that's just a guess). From a playing perspective, as well, adding mass can throw off the balance of a guitar in your hands and that can detract from your playing even more than sustain adds to it. Finally, as has been pointed out, tremolo blocks aren't exactly sustain's best friend. It is hard to see how a bit o' brass can completely compensate for what a tremolo takes away.

4/28/1999 11:50 PM

Mark Hammer

Leave your guitar unplugged and strum it unamplified while you push the headstock against a doorframe or solid desk. You will generally hear a difference. At a certain point, there will be a louder acoustic sound and a greater fullness to the sound. That is the outcome of having an effective headstock mass that is many times greater than what is feasible with a traditional wood headstock. And that was probably the inspiration for the Fathead and any similar devices. No big secret. Hell, when I was 15 I was doing it to fake having an amp. It's worth pointing out that you could also do the same thing by pressing the body of the guitar against a solid surface too, and in some respects the Dan Armstrong Lucite guitar was intended to do that too.

Now, having said that, the Fathead is a kind of one size fits all solution for something that really ought to be a custom-tailored device (which is maybe why you still don't see them around much). In the same way that leaning your axe against just *anything* won't necessarily do the trick, neither will sticking any old hunk of brass on your guitar. I'm not saying it has to be precision-milled to tight tolerances. I'm just saying that whatever you stick on has to take into account the weight and liveliness of the neck relative to the body, quality of energy transfer in the neck/body joint, and bridge parameters. It may take more mass or less, or that same mass may need to be moved over a little. An all rosewood neck with a tight joint probably won't show any effect of added mass. I suspect a light n' lively neck on a very resonant body will show some limited benefit up to a point and then declining effect (but that's just a guess).

From a playing perspective, as well, adding mass can throw off the balance of a guitar in your hands and that can detract from your playing even more than sustain adds to it.

Finally, as has been pointed out, tremolo blocks aren't exactly sustain's best friend. It is hard to see how a bit o' brass can completely compensate for what a tremolo takes away.

4/29/1999 12:05 AM
Richie	I guess we older guys have seen just about everthing.. when they first started hotrodding guitars they used brass nuts.. brass pickguards, hollow out the pickup cavity,[hopefully for the Ted Nuggent sustian]I even seen holes cut in the pickguard for sound holes between pickups, and about everything else,magnetic E-Bow,etc.Or just move back and push the guitar butt against the speaker cabnet for prolonged sustain, or tip the headstock to the speaker cabnet. I don't like the brass or bone or any metal nut.[but thats me] As for the Fathead.. I haven't tried one, if you do make this let us know what results you have with it.[Richie]

4/29/1999 12:05 AM

Richie

I guess we older guys have seen just about everthing.. when they first started hotrodding guitars they used brass nuts.. brass pickguards, hollow out the pickup cavity,[hopefully for the Ted Nuggent sustian]I even seen holes cut in the pickguard for sound holes between pickups, and about everything else,magnetic E-Bow,etc.Or just move back and push the guitar butt against the speaker cabnet for prolonged sustain, or tip the headstock to the speaker cabnet. I don't like the brass or bone or any metal nut.[but thats me] As for the Fathead.. I haven't tried one, if you do make this let us know what results you have with it.[Richie]

4/29/1999 8:38 PM
Steve Dallman	Back in the early 80's Ibanez made a 75 lb.solid brass 'Artist'guitar as a spoof and put it on display at a NAMM show. (The artist is sort of a double cutaway Les Paul.) This was at the height of the brass craze. They had many inquiries on how to order.

4/30/1999 4:08 PM

R.G.

Best Rock Guitar ever made...

quote:
"Back in the early 80's Ibanez made a 75 lb.solid brass 'Artist'guitar "

AGH! Utter Cool!!

Hey! There are a couple of places here in town that make granite and marble countertops, and they always have a hunk or two that broke in transit or in polishing...

How about a solid red granite guitar!! No puny carbide routers need apply - get out your diamond blades. And belt buckle scratches - Hah! Try it...

4/30/1999 9:03 AM
Ryan Lussier	Re: brass plate behind headstock Thats funny, I have a 66 Jaguar that has its neck shimmed with two guitar picks and I was thinking I wanted the neck to be straight but it still needs a spacer so the bridge and pickups are O.K. so I thought I'd get a piece of bell brass cut to the size of the neck pocket. Would this be O.K.? Do you think it would kill sustain or improve it?

4/30/1999 12:08 PM
nic	angled neck great question! I played and old Strat in Japan once that had an angled neck. I thought it was strange. It felt so strange to play. Do you think the guy did that to improve sustain, or was it possibly cause the neck was in such bad shape that it was nessessary? Could that improve things a bit? nic

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